10:28 p.m. EST update: Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports says Wilson is expected to accept a five-year deal from the Angels. The Marlins offered six years, but the left-hander has apparently chosen to return to his native southern California instead.

7:50 p.m. EST update: Mr. Ken Rosenthal begs to differ. His source is reporting that the Marlins are the “best bet” for Wilson, while the Angels are a close second. The Rangers appear to have fallen out of the mix.

It’s been reported all day that the Marlins are at six years with Wilson, while the belief is that the Angels only want to go five. Wilson, however, is a California native and may choose the Angels’ offer anyway.

4:05 p.m. EST update: FOXSports.com’s Jon Paul Morosi states that the Nationals are out on Wilson. The Rangers still seem to be in the mix, but it looks like the Marlins and Angels will be the higher bidders.

If signed, Wilson would join Jered Weaver, Dan Haren and Ervin Santana in what could be the AL’s best rotation. Of course, that alone might not allow the Angels to overtake the Rangers. The Angels finished with the AL’s best ERA last season, yet were 10th in the league in runs scored and ended up a full 10 games behind Texas at 86-76.

“That alone” won’t allow the Angels to take over the Rangers, but you have to figure that adding Wilson and Ianetta in place of Chatwood and Mathis is worth probably 6-7 wins on its own, and going from Wilson to Buehrle could cost the Rangers a couple of wins. Now you’re within the margin of error. Throw in an “even year” performance from Vernon Wells, and you’ve got yourself a race!

Who says Texas gets Bhuerle? We lose CJ and have already said Feliz will be in the rotation. So that is pretty much set. We have Feldman also that is able to be slotted in, as well as quite a few minor league arms that could move up. Iannetta is better than Mathis, but a wet noodle is better than Mathis…not seeing many extra wins from him. career .235 hitter that averages 8-9 HR’s? Too bad you didn’t keep Nap.

LAA best bet is that Texas gets bitten by the injury bug, otherwise adding pitching isn’t going to solve any of your problems.

Ummm, OK. I used Buehrle because he’s the best of all the guys mentioned. Surely you can see that Buehrle is better than Feldman. And as good as Feliz was as a reliever, expecting him to be a better starting pitcher than Mark Buehrle is probably wishcasting.

So how about I say, “going from Wilson to Buehrle/Feliz/Feldman” could cost the Rangers a couple of wins? Is that more to your liking?

And you toss aside my point that Ianetta is an upgrade from Mathis by saying “a wet noodle is better than Mathis.” But the point is that Ianetta IS better than Mathis. Mathis was sub-replacement value last year. Ianetta had a WAR over 2. Just because Ianetta isn’t Johnny Bench, or even Mike Napoli, doesn’t mean that he’s not going to be a win or two better than Jeff Mathis.

I agree mostly with Joe. Let’s just assume that they make no major pickups in FA and replace CJ with Feliz…that’s almost certain to be a downgrade. Does Feldman really inspire that much confidence? He pitched 32 decent innings last year, but his career ERA is still 4.75. Upgrading from Mathis to Iannetta is actually significant, instead of having the catcher’s spot in the order be a black hole of embarrassing waste, they can throw a .340 OBP in that spot.

CJ Wilson wouldn’t even be the team’s ace, he’d basically be their #3 starter behind Haren and Weaver…think about it. A rotation of Haren, Weaver, Wilson and Santana can solve *quite* a few problems. They’re still a bat short, but it wouldn’t shock me if Vernon had a mini rebound (emphasis on mini…he has to be better than a .248 OBP, right?), maybe Trout helps them this year, maybe Morales actually makes an appearance? It’s closer than you think if they do indeed sign Wilson. If not, then they have a lot more ground to make up. And I’m a Red Sox fan too, so I could give a shit either way.

uyf1950 - Dec 7, 2011 at 12:53 PM

Could it be that if the Angels sign CJ Wilson they might move Ervin Santana to make room in the payroll to go after Aramis Ramirez?

A starting rotation of Weaver/Haren/Wilson (being a lefty) would round out the rotation. Certainly Santana is an excellent pitcher but right now the Angles need a lefty and having payroll flexibility to sign Aramis would be a very good thing.

Wow. The Wilson anti-hype is amazing. First someone says that Buehrle is better than him… now Ervin Santana?! Who’s never in his career had an ERA as good as Wilson’s 2010, let alone his 2011? Who’s last year with dominant peripherals was 2008? And it was followed by a year with an ERA over 5?

You can’t even cite Wilson’s one poor postseason, since Santana’s postseasons have been worse.

mirmz - Dec 7, 2011 at 3:28 PM

I used to believe headlines that said the “Angels are favorites to land…” but after Tex, Crawford, and Beltre, I am now skeptical. Moreno’s hard-line negotiation tactics always seem to backfire in the end.

He had a pretty poor post-season, no doubt. Those can even out over the years. I would say on the statistics that he is solid, but certainly not worth that kind of money. But iit’s a seller’s market for pitchers this year.

Also Rangers have had all the hitting and that’s awesome, their pitching has always been suspect and yes Wilson did not have a good post season, but this only hurts the rangers in the long run, taking another gamble with feliz now in the rotation. So have all the hitting you want, that wont win you championships (see the last 2 seasons) look at the 2010 giants, rocked the rangers with a no hitting, but anI all pitching team..

We have put up with CJ for 4 poor seasons and 2 decent ones along with winning only 1 of 9 post season starts. He isn’t worth the half the money these idiots are going to pay him and the Rangers were smart to bail out early. That money will buy us many more wins than CJ could ever provide. Cj doesn’t care about Rangers or the fans. There isn’t any more loyalty left with these greedy ball players willing to turn on us for a few bucks. Good riddance.

You call his last two years decent? Really? A sub 3 ERA in the bandbox in texas, 223 innings, 206 strikeouts, 1.19 WHIP, you call that decent? Year before that 3.35 ERA as his first full season as a starter, and in 2009 a 2.81 ERA out of the bullpen? Thats not decent, thats GREAT, and in 4 starts during the 2010 playoffs his ERA was 3.7, yet he only won one of those games. I have no clue if he will be durable seeing how he’s only started for two years, but its really insulting to say that his past 2 years were “decent” abd he had 4 “poor” seasons when 2 of his last 3 out of the bullpen had ERA’s of 3.03 and 2.81.

If the Feesh do land Wilson on top of Buehrle, that gives ’em Johnson, Buehrle, Wilson, Anibal Sanchez, Ricky Nolasco, Brad Hand, Chris Volstad.

I think it’s a foregone conclusion that Volstad is finished in Macondo regardless. He’s as erratic as a Blue Dog Democrat. Hand is young and cheap so I think he stays. If they sign Wilson, it says right here that the Feesh package Nolasco and Tweeter for that one more slugger they want to protect the Iron Giant in the batting order. Who’d be available? Tough to think of who they might go after.